October 1, 2010
Useful information is useful.
The goons of Something Awful's Serious Hardware/Software Crap subforum operate an informative website with lots of useful articles, including guides to data recovery and mostly free bits of useful Windows software.
My dentist keeps telling me to FLOSS
Do you like manuals? Do you like Wikis? Do you like open source software? Check out FLOSS Manuals for wiki-fied manuals for popular and fun open source software, including PureData, Inkscape, Blender, Ardour, among others. Taking a page from programmers, the group endorses "book sprints", where creative writers, editors and artists work closely together to complete an online book in a short, intense burst of effort.
Homage or Fromage
"Animal services workers take the turtle out of its safe haven in the garbage can."
Is it ok to root for Michael Vick?
The moral ambiguity of redemption:Is the resurgence of Michael Vick the feel good story of the young 2010 NFL season? Or is that just crazy talk?
How to Analyze People on Sight, 1921
How to Analyze People on Sight, The Five Human Types, 1921. And other volumes of interest at Project Gutenberg.
Google Military Industrial Complex
Ron Paul asks "What if?" (SLYT)
For all your css-based text shadowing needs
MOTHER EFFING TEXT-SHADOW For all your css-based text shadowing needs
An "elite Northeast establishment liberal"
The English Language In 24 Accents
Twenty-four different accents in just over eight minutes. (NSFW SLYT)
R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell
A last sheet flutters onto the pile: Stephen J. Cannell, the mystery novelist and television deity responsible for 21 Jump Street, The A-Team, Baa Baa Black Sheep (or Black Sheep Squadron), Baretta, Booker, Broken Badges, Chase, Cobra, The Commish, The D.A., The Duke, The Greatest American Hero, Hardcastle and McCormick, The Hat Squad, Hawkeye, Hunter, J.J. Starbuck, The Last Precinct, The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage, Palace Guard, Profit, The Quest, Renegade, Richie Brockelman: Private Eye, Riptide, The Rockford Files, The Rousters, Silk Stalkings, Sonny Spoon, Stingray, Stone, Street Justice, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, Toma, Top of the Hill, Unsub, and Wiseguy, has passed away. He was 69. [more inside]
Google PenguinView
One side to every story.
The Osbornes
The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, released in April 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. It weighed 23.5 pounds, cost $1,795, and ran the then-popular CP/M 2.2 operating system. The computer shipped with a large bundle of software that was almost equivalent in value to the machine itself. [more inside]
What would happen if you put your hand in the Large Hadron Collider.
Several physicists weigh in on what would happen if you were to place your hand in the proton stream of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. There's not a definite answer...the responses range from "nothing" to "you'd die for sure, instantly". [more inside]
No Pressure
Sorry. Today we put up a mini-movie about 10:10 and climate change called 'No Pressure’. Many people found the resulting film extremely funny, but unfortunately some didn't and we sincerely apologise to anybody we have offended. As a result of these concerns we've taken it off our website. We won't be making any attempt to censor or remove other versions currently in circulation on the internet.
A Tour through the Visualization Zoo
A Tour through the Visualization Zoo. A survey of powerful visualization techniques, from the obvious to the obscure.
"My brother and I were directly descended from Chaucer. (There’s no non-dick way to say that, is there?)"
"Three years ago, on my first trip to England, I visited the Tower of London with my friends Tony and Emily. When I got home and uploaded my pictures, I found this strange blur of light on this photo taken outside the room that housed all the torture implements at the Tower... I told Antonia about my weird photo from 2007, and how I wanted to take another picture in the same place when we went, just for fun... [Back at the tower, I] took another shot of Esme on the walkway. And when I looked at it on my camera after, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Now don’t laugh at me, but do you see a sort of smudge to the center and right? Like a smudge made of light?... It made my heart stop for a second. I’m clearly starting to see spooky stuff in places where there is nothing spooky to see."
Tea Party and Me
Former president Jimmy Carter speaks about the similarities and differences between the political climate in the mid 1970's and the present rise of the Tea Party.
Physics! Rainbows! Unicorns!
Enter the Konami Code at the BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy page and unicorns will shoot out of your computer screen. No, really.
The Geometry of Pasta
The Geometry of Pasta. If you click on a shape, on most of them, it tells you a bit of history and recipe suggestions. l Pasta shape names l Recipes l Farfalle (butterflies/bow-ties) with Prosciutto and cream animation. The geography of pasta l The origins of pasta. Glossary. More pasta shapes. [more inside]
The eeriest places in New York City
Over the decades nature has reclaimed southern Edgemere. Groves of trees, acres of bushes, wild flowers, rabbits, and flocks of birds all thrive within sight of the nearby elevated MTA line. However, few people can be seen walking through this no-mans-land, perhaps because of its history of wild dog attacks. In 2001, two Rockaway residents "were brutalized by a pack of wild dogs" in the Arverne Urban Renewal Area, according to The Wave. The dogs came from an abandoned block, "stalked" their first victim, and "dragged him off the boardwalk onto an adjacent lot and began consuming his flesh," according to The Wave. In spite of this, several homeless camps are currently hidden deep in the Edgemere overgrowth. Some are as simple as a mattress tossed in the bushes or a sofa placed in a clearing. Others are more elaborate, including one camp with platform beds on a stone patio surrounded by a garden and fence. Another camp is large enough to house several families.The place is Edgemere, Queens, New York, where for nearly 4 decades an entire neighborhood has sat vitually empty on abandoned ocean front property.
We are sorry that we intentionally infected you with syphilis
From 1946 to 1948, mental health patients and prisoners in Guatemala were infected with syphilis so that vaccines could be tested. [more inside]
What Terrifies the Terrorists?
If it piles, we post it
Work piling up? Debt accruing? Beer cans stacking to the ceiling? Maybe you'd appreciate mmmmounds, a pile of piles.
Scanning the fibres, furrows and freckles
"What the Mayfield case teaches about biometrics in general is that, no matter how accurate the technology used for screening, it is only as good as the system of administrative procedures in which it is embedded." The Economist outlines some of the problems with biometric passports. There are lots of them: "...biometric recognition is not only “inherently fallible”, but also in dire need of some fundamental research on the biological underpinnings of human distinctiveness." [more inside]
The humor writing of Miles Kington
High court hangups and There's no place like a hotel are short humor pieces by Miles Kington featuring the Socratically uncooperative testimony of one Mr Chrysler who's accused of stealing 40,000 hangers from hotels. [more inside]
Nirvana The Band
"We are Nirvana The Band, the live musical that will never play the same show twice. To not let us play on your stage would be a terrible mistake. We are Nirvana The Band. For now; forever; for better; for worse. Four -- times four -- is sixteen."
One small step for man, one giant leap for pot smokers
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Thursday signed into law a bill that decriminalizes the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana. The bill reduces simple possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction. via [more inside]
'These "positive externalities" need to be highlighted to gain public support for free transit,'
Brains for the Baby Jesus
From 2005, a short film version of Rogue Farm by Metafilter's Own Charlie Stross. Not had your fill of biotech horror in the Highlands? Listen to an ensemble cast perform the whole thing at Balticon, or indeed, read the original story.
“Ricardo Montalban is to improvisational acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation.”
"Sintel" is an independently produced short film, initiated by the Blender Foundation as a means to further improve and validate the free/open source 3D creation suite Blender. With initial funding provided by 1000s of donations via the internet community, it has again proven to be a viable development model for both open 3D technology as for independent animation film.
This 15 minute film has been realized in the studio of the Amsterdam Blender Institute, by an international team of artists and developers. In addition to that, several crucial technical and creative targets have been realized online, by developers and artists and teams all over the world. [more inside]
Mountains beyond mountains
Earlier this week, Toxie, NPR's cutest toxic asset died. One of the mortgages bundled into this asset was an investment property in Bradenton, Florida, which, like many Florida homes, has never been occupied or served as anything other than a financial instrument. Boston.com's Big Picture recently took a look from above at the effects that this (and previous) housing bubbles have had on the development of Florida's cities and landscapes. How do you design a city that nobody plans to live in? (Previously)
Crunch time
TechCrunch has been bought by AOL for between $25 and $60 million . Just in time, because Techcrunch founder Mike Arrington works too hard.
Bacon Kevin Bacon!
Please be advised that *Bacon Kevin Bacon is not edible.
White Power
"Is the US heading toward a future of greater diversity and racial tolerance, or of racially-motivated violence and separation?" Al Jazeera takes a look at the White Power movement in the United States.
Meanwhile, over at the reservoir...
Effectology is an ongoing series of videos* that go into exceptional detail on how to use guitar effects pedals*. [more inside]
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